practice

“If you want to become a great musician, you need to know three things. First, you must master the rules before trying to break them. Second, music is about tension and resolve. Third, practice, practice, practice, but when you’re out playing, forget it all.” Unattributed classical composer, quote from the Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander

An interesting perspective on how to approach your practice time (Blocked Practice vs. Interleaved Practice) https://www.musical-u.com/learn/why-youre-not-making-progress-instrument...

"For those of us who want to become masters at playing the harmonica, practice will probably take the majority of the time you spend working to get better. As you have, or will come to realize, mastering the harmonica is a journey that will take quite a long time. Of course, everyone of you will have your own goals and ideas about the type of music you want to play and how good you want to get. However, the key to all this practice and playing is to have fun. You’re in charge of how much you practice and what you practice and most importantly, your attitude during practice. continue reading...

http://lifehacker.com/5939374/a-better-way-to-practice

A nice article shared to me by Jon Harl (thanks Jon) on how to improve the quality of your practice time. Under “How to Accelerate Skill Development” item 2, labeled “Timing is everything, too” I recommend you base what you’re practicing on your daily energy curve. continue reading...

Thanks to fellow student Gary Hayes for sharing this paper, it's the source of most of today's literature on practice.
http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf

I've mentioned this book in the past, but a good friend (and fellow student of yours) reminded me that it's time to mention it again. "The Practicing Mind" http://www.thepracticingmind.com does a great job of simply laying out the mental process of practice.

Howard Levy and I were having a discussion a while back about teaching and the challenges students deal with. He recounted a story of a specific student that couldn't play a song... his rhythm was off and he would commonly be on the wrong hole of the harmonica and not recognize it. He asked the student to put down the harmonica and sing it, and the student couldn't sing it. continue reading...

Wynton’s Twelve Ways to Practice
http://arbanmethod.com/wyntons-twelve-ways-to-practice/

"Play everything — no matter how trivial or trite it might be — with dynamics and sound and musical expression."

From: http://arbanmethod.com/wynton-marsalis-daily-practice/ Thanks to Jon Harl for sharing.

When preparing to perform a song make sure to practice your intro speech, count-in and signaling for breaks and ending (especially for breaks and ending). If you neglect this in your practice you'll be more likely to miss the timing of your signals in performance.